CHENNAI:
A newly launched collaborative venture will provide a platform for Allopathy-Ayurveda collaboration in diabetes research. Under a memorandum of understanding signed last week between Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai, and the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore, the two institutions will initially work for solutions to diabetic complications and, subsequently, broaden the research agenda.

The Arya Vaidya Chikitsalayam and Research Institute, set up at the diabetes specialities centre, will offer traditional therapeutic Ayurveda treatment alongside the joint research programmes. The research will examine the efficacy of Ayurvedic modalities for treatment of complications such as diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy and degenerative disorders and provide scientific validation.

V. Mohan, chairman of the centre, said the collaboration would also focus on reverse pharmacology, or working backwards from the drug response to understand exactly how the active ingredient works and its functional pathways, and pharmacogenomics, or the meeting point of pharmaceuticals and genetics that deals with the study of how an individual's genetic inheritance affects the body's response to drugs. "We are not only giving allopathy an inclusive dimension in tune with changed national policy, but providing traditional medicine a scientific backing that would stand muster in the global scientific community."

The tie-up built on the `golden triangle' or a harmonious blend of traditional medicine, modern medicine and modern science, envisaged by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research chief R.A. Mashelkar. "Complementary medicine can extend comprehensive benefits for diabetic patients," said P.R. Krishnakumar, MD, AVP.

Ram Manohar, research director, AVP, said the processes of taking forward research in Ayurveda was bogged down in pre-clinical studies due to paucity of research subjects. "By bringing specialists from both streams under one roof, we are ideally placed to provide the best of both medical systems," Rema Mohan, managing director, said.